Simple network management protocol or SNMP is described in various RFCs, including SNMP v1 described in re RFC1155, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), 1997 and other flavors of SNMP including v2 and v3. SNMP can be used to exchange data between computers that indicates about network activity. The data travels between a number of managed computers/nodes and a network management station. A number of different network devices such as sub agents, master agents, and the like may also be managed using the SNMP protocol. The details of SNMP communications are well known in the art. The communications may produce a file, such as a MIPS file, that includes a textual data describing the network. The system often uses a polled interface which sends information to every item on the network, and receives information back.
SNMP is used by existing computer programs such as HP OpenView™.